billions of galaxies forming from an extremely dense, highly energetic singularity expanding in an extremely finely tuned manner. Is this equivalent to scientific belief in a miracle?
Further reading for “Is There Purpose to Life? Implications from the Big Bang”
1. Stephen Barr, Modern Physics and Ancient Faith. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003. Provides an unusual blend of cosmology and Christian reflection on the meaning of the physical events. Stephen Barr is a physicist at the University of Delaware and a Catholic who writes in a very accessible style from a Christian perspective.
2. Paul Davies, The Mind of God: Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1992. Paul Davies is one of the few scientists who does not subscribe to conventional religion yet is adamant that the world is teaming with purpose. This book visits answers to how the world might have arisen, why the world is understandable, and why the question of meaning is so important. The style is light and engaging with a focus on ultimate meaning rather than the underlying math and physics.
3. Karl Giberson and Donald Yerxa. Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002. An excellent middle-of-the-road history of intelligent design particularly in the last three chapters.
4. Alister McGrath, The Science of God: An Introduction to Scientific Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004. Touted as the most influential idea in theology this book is a stripped down version of a three-volume tome. The first three chapters on background, nature, and reality are excellent and reasonably accessible.
5. Del Ratzsch, Nature, Design, and Science: The Status of Design in Natural Science. New York: SUNY, 2001. Provides a philosophical defense for the clearly defined study of design. The writing is dense and technical, possibly to avoid pitfalls, but the result is to limit accessibility for non-specialists.
6. Rodney Holder, God, the Multiverse, and Everything: Modern Cosmology and the Argument from Design. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2004. Physicist-Priest Rodney Holder uses a mathematical probability analysis to probe whether fine tuning is best explained by steady state theory, multiverse theory, or divine fiat. An excellent summary of current arguments is followed by a mathematical treatment, the most intense of which is relegated to appendices. Prevalent use of analogy make this quite readable.
7. Rodney Holder, Big Bang, Big God: A Universe Designed for Life? Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2013. Holder explains the fine tuning in the universe and compares the Christian doctrine of creation with steady state and multiverse theories. Throughout the book he shows problems with current proposals, particularly those of Stephen Hawking. He relies significantly on the use of Bayes’s probability theorem as a way to argue for the reasonableness of the Christian doctrine of creation from nothing.
8. Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee. Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe. New York: Springer, 2007. Two experts in geology and astronomy join forces in showing just how special earth is. From earth’s position in the habitable zone to early life on earth, plate tectonics, and the solar system, the authors describe a readable structure of the world that emphasizes its uniqueness.
9. Trinh X. Thuan, Chaos and Harmony: Perspectives on Scientific Revolutions of the Twentieth Century. Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation, 2006. Combining his expertise in astrophysics with his Buddhist beliefs, Trinh draws out the world’s beauty and elegance recently discovered by science. The style is engaging and poetic, readily accessible, and captures the depth and meaning in the human experience of interacting with the world.
10. Christopher Southgate, ed., God, Humanity, and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion. New York: Trinity, 1999. A definitive work that is an excellent resource designed for reference rather than a continuous read.
11. Ian Barbour, When Science Meets Religion. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. Ian Barbour, one of the leaders in science and religion, provides an accessible book summarizing the key ideas in the field that is suited for academically inclined readers. The focus lies in showing the progression of science and religion from conflict, through independence, to dialogue, and now to integration.
12. Christopher Baglow, Faith, Science, and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge. Chicago: Midwest Theological Forum, 2009. Baglow deftly focuses on the philosophical issues emanating from the intersection of science and religion. He writes from a Catholic perspective and quotes liberally from church figures with an emphasis on Catholic writers.
1. Hoyle, “The Universe,” 12.
2. Gen 1:1–5
3. Einstein, quoted in Chandrasekhar, “General Theory of Relativity,” 4.
4. Gingerich, God’s Universe, 30.
5. Overbye, “Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe,” A1.
6. Einstein, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 392.
7. Einstein,quoted in Stockwood, Religion and the Scientists, 54.
8. Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, cover.
9. Einstein, letter to Besso Family, quoted in Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, 193.
10. Jensen, Divine Providence and Human Agency, 39.
11. Augustine, Confessions.
12. Einstein, translated in Holton, The Scientific Imagination, xii.
13. Paley, The Works of William Paley, IV.2.
14. McGrath, The Science of God.
2. The Origin of Life: Who or What Creates Life?
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” wrote Einstein.15 Pope John-Paul II refocuses Einstein’s idea to show how together the two disciplines work to uncover truth: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”16 Nowhere is the intersection of science and religion more divisive than the origin of life and yet this area is where insight is most needed to guide thinking through knotty issues of genetic engineering, cloning, and stem-cell research.
Evolution is probably the greatest source of antagonism between science and religion. For religious people, God made all things. In contrast, biological evolution provides an account of life’s development from inorganic matter without the necessity for any external agent. Evidence from many scientific fields, biology, geology, anthropology, paleontology, and chemistry, provides a highly plausible
